Lex Hives (LP)

The Hives

1 Used

Amoeba Review

It’s been some time since the Hives stormed rock radio in the early 2000s with “Hate to Say I Told You So,” the dynamite single from their breakthrough album, Veni Vidi Vicious. The Hives have soldiered on, and thankfully, they’ve grown without losing the bratty appeal that made them so exciting in the first place. On Lex Hives, the band reinstates its party rock aesthetic with an opening track consisting of nothing but riffs and frontman Pelle Almqvist shouting “Come on!” It speaks to the biggest change in The Hives’ sound, which has veered from the garagey punk of their debut toward new wave on Tyrannosaurus Hives and now scuffed up ’70s arena rock, especially on first single “Go Right Ahead.” But E.L.O. never screeched and roared like Almqvist and co., and even their catchiest cuts, like the Devo-esque “Wait a Minute,” never lose their edge in striving for hookiness. The Hives seem to know what they do best, returning to their roots on breakneck-speed rockers like “These Spectacles Reveal the Nostalgics” and “If I Had a Cent,” but don’t mind messing with the formula to keep things interesting -- “Take Back the Toys” sounds like someone left a cassette of the band’s biggest hit out in the sun, baked into crispy lo-fi, while “My Time Is Coming” begins a blues-y dirge before flying into garage-rock bacchanalia. A deluxe version of the album includes the Gary Glitter blast of “High School Shuffle” and a surprisingly effective blues-rocker, “Insane,” both given beefed-up production by Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme.